The Conversation

More kids than ever need special education, but burnout has caused a teacher shortage

Written by Kimber Wilkerson, Professor of Special Education, University of Wisconsin-Madison

Many special education teachers quit after less than five years on the job.10'000 Hours/Digital Vision via Getty Images

A growing number of students in public schools – right now, about 15% of them – are eligible for special education services. These services include specially designed instruction for students with autism, learning or...

Tracking vampire worms with machine learning − using AI to diagnose schistosomiasis before the parasites causing it hatch in your blood

Written by Trirupa Chakraborty, Ph.D. Candidate in Integrative Systems Biology, University of Pittsburgh

Blood samples of patients infected with a parasitic worm that causes schistosomiasis contain hidden information that marks different stages of the disease. In our recently published research, our team used machine learning to uncover that hidden information and improve early detection and diagnosis of infection.

The parasite that causes...

Could fungi actually cause a zombie apocalypse?

Written by Matt Kasson, Associate Professor of Mycology and Plant Pathology, West Virginia University

A zombie cicada fungus, _Massospora cicadina_, has consumed the rear end of this periodical cicada, replacing it with a 'plug' of chalky spores.Matt Kasson, CC BY-ND

Curious Kids is a series for children of all ages. If you have a question you’d like an expert to answer, send it to curiouskidsus@theconversation.com.

Is a zombie apocalypse...

Some people love to scare themselves in an already scary world − here’s the psychology of why

Written by Sarah Kollat, Teaching Professor of Psychology, Penn State

A controlled scary experience can leave you exhilarated and relaxed afterward.gremlin/E+ via Getty Images

Fall for me as a teenager meant football games, homecoming dresses – and haunted houses. My friends organized group trips to the local fairground, where barn sheds were turned into halls of horror, and masked men nipped at our ankles with...

During the American Revolution, Brits weren’t just facing off against white Protestant Christians − US patriots are diverse and have been since Day 1

Written by Adam Jortner, Goodwin Philpott Eminent Professor of Religion, Auburn University

A detail from the Washington Monument in Philadelphia, sculpted by Rudolf Siemering.PHAS/Universal Images Group via Getty Images

In 1770, Barnard Gratz of Philadelphia wrote to a friend complaining about a recent speech by King George III. Gratz, an American patriot, wrote that the speech “was such narishkeit” that it was “not...

Hemingway, after the hurricane

Written by Verna Kale, Associate Editor, The Letters of Ernest Hemingway and Associate Research Professor of English, Penn State

Rescue workers search debris for victims of the Labor Day hurricane of 1935, a Category 5 storm that devastated parts of the Florida Keys.Bettman/Getty Images

The 2024 hurricane season has been especially disastrous, and the casualties and widespread damage from flooding and high winds in towns like Cedar Key, Florida, call to mind another historic...

What the history of blasphemy laws in the US and the fight for religious freedom can teach us today

Written by Kristina M. Lee, Assistant Professor, University of South Dakota

U.S. blasphemy laws reflect a complex fight for the freedom of religion and speechGetty Images

Some 79 countries around the world continue to enforce blasphemy laws. And in places such as Afghanistan, Brunei, Iran, Nigeria, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia, violation of these measures can result in a death penalty.

While the U.S. is not among those...

AI, cryptocurrencies and data privacy: Comparing the Trump and Harris records on technology regulation

Written by Anjana Susarla, Professor of Information Systems, Michigan State University

The Federal Trade Commission is one of the main venues for government regulation of big tech and its wares. Alpha Photo/Flickr, CC BY-NC

It’s not surprising that technology regulation is an important issue in the 2024 U.S. presidential campaign.

The past decade has seen advanced technologies, from social media algorithms to large language...

To make nuclear fusion a reliable energy source one day, scientists will first need to design heat- and radiation-resilient materials

Written by Sophie Blondel, Research Assistant Professor of Nuclear Engineering, University of Tennessee

A fusion experiment ran so hot that the wall materials facing the plasma retained defects.Christophe Roux/CEA IRFM, CC BY

Fusion energy has the potential to be an effective clean energy source, as its reactions generate incredibly large amounts of energy. Fusion reactors aim to reproduce on Earth what happens in the core of the Sun, where very...

MicroRNA − a new Nobel laureate describes the scientific process of discovering these tiny molecules that turn genes on and off

Written by Victor Ambros, Professor of Molecular Medicine, UMass Chan Medical School

A microRNA molecule is a tiny regulator of other genetic material.Artur Plawgo/iStock via Getty Images Plus

The 2024 Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine goes to Victor Ambros and Gary Ruvkun for their discovery of microRNA, tiny biological molecules that tell the cells in your body what kind of cell to be by turning on and off certain genes.

The...